Google issues final call for 2015 Call to Code competition

A final call for young post-primary school coders has been issued by Google ahead of its Call to Code competition 2015, which takes place at the end of November.

In its second year, the Call to Code competition is a Google-sponsored online competition open to students based in Ireland aged 13 t0 18 and includes both logic puzzles and programming tasks designed for junior level and senior level cycles.

Taking place on 25 November, Google has said that the final applicants will be processed at midday on 23 November, with teachers asked to enter in their students by that time.

“This competition is open to all post-primary school students, even those who are completely new to coding,” said Claire Conneely, education manager at Google Ireland. “We want as many students as possible to take part and try out coding and perhaps they will find that they have a hidden talent because successful coding is about logic: if you can think logically, you can code.”

She added, “This is also a great resource for teachers who are trying to encourage students to learn to code and to develop the skills of young people who are already enthusiastic about coding. Teachers play a vital role in computer science education and Call to Code is designed to support teachers in encouraging students to code and study computer science.”

Those registered by then will be able to take part in the first round of the competition on 25 November where the students will be set challenges and coding puzzles by Google’s engineers.

After this stage, 40 finalists will then be selected to come to Google’s EMEA Headquarters in Dublin on 9 December to take part in the final round of the competition.

“Teachers play a vital role in computer science education and Call to Code is designed to support teachers in encouraging students to code and study computer science,” Conneely added.

As an award-winning editor for Consumer Magazine of the Year 2013, Colm joined Siliconrepublic.com in January 2014 as a journalist covering AI, IoT, science and anything that will get us to Mars quicker.

When not trying to get his hands on the latest gaming release, he can be found lost in a sea of Wikipedia articles on obscure historic battles and countries that don’t exist anymore or watching classic Simpsons episodes far too many times to count.

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